People who missed out Google Glasses this week can try unusable frames for free

Potential Google Glass “Explorers” who missed out on a $1,500 unit during Google’s one-day online sale this week can at least try out an unusable unit at home — for free.

The loaners come in four colors and new titanium “feather-light” frame styles that also fit prescription lenses, according to a report on the Glass Almanac blog.

While the program is free and Google offers prepaid return labels, potential Glass customers will have a $50 hold put on their credit cards until the unusable frames come back.

People interested in the program can call 855-9GLASS9, according to the Glass Almanac report.

In a statement to this newspaper Friday, Google said “We’ve heard from potential Explorers that they’d love to be able to try Glass on at home before committing to purchase it. As a result, we’re doing outreach to a small group to see how this approach works. We’ll let you know if this experiment continues.”

Google won’t say how many Google Glasses it sold Tuesday. In a blog post the company wrote, “All spots in the Explorer Program have been claimed for now, but if you missed it this time, don’t worry. We’ll be trying new ways to expand the Explorer program in the future.”

An estimated 10,000 Google Glasses already were in the hands of the first early adopters, but it’s unknown how many more are now out in the public following Tuesday’s sale.

And it’s unclear how many unusable frames Google plans to loan.

The Google Glass web page is displayed on a computer screen in Tiskilwa, Illinois this week for Google’s one-day sale. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Unusable Frames – Really? Sounds like some bright spark at Google, thinks that getting poorer/thriftier/stingier wannabe glassholes to cough up $50 (bond) for a dummy (nonworking) pair of google glasses, will put a stop to richer/extravagant/working poor glassholes getting bashed up for using working google glasses.Does anyone else see a flaw in Google’s plan